My bestest pal Joel Watson has a Patreon thing now! This is notable here because it seems I’m one of the pledge tier rewards. After a certain amount of bidding, Joel evolves Pokemon-style into me. And then me and evolved-Joel-me will recite the Team Rocket chant, on video, for people. Probably.

Or we’ll just belittle each other’s masculinity with an unspoken yet powerful sexual tension, as per usual.

I don’t know. There is the argument that, by being blunt and honest about it, he’s saving Danny a lot of anguish in the long run and forcing to find a solution that actually works for him, rather than simply burring his head and pretending he ca deal with it.

I am unmoved by this argument. I would in fact say that Danny has a penchant for ignoring otherwise sound advice when it is delivered in a harsh manner. He did so when Joe told him about Dorothy’s impending breakup. I know *I* tend to ignore assessments from people if they are pissing me off, and will in fact pursue the opposite strategy more aggressively as a way to prove them wrong. On top of that Joe isn’t exactly informed on the specifics of the situation, and I honestly don’t think the boy understands people who don’t live his kind of lifestyle (“I don’t touch the stuff”). Also, I continue to sense resentment and a bit of vindictiveness from Joe when it comes to Danny. He’s admitted he is angry that Danny isn’t around like he hoped he would be to hang out and such. I don’t exactly see his attitude or his advice as untainted by that.

Without having yet heard what it is Joe will say, what has he said in this strip that’s so bad? He’s just giving advice (albeit emotionally immature advice, but he thinks it’s good advice) in panels 2-3.

Its cool. I experienced the same thing when he was spitting on Blaine and giving good advice to Amazigirl. You’ll get used to the feeling. Just don’t operate heavy machinery for a few hours and sit down if you feel dizzy.

I’m sympathizing with Danny too. It takes real strength of character to understand your own limitations, and to admit openly (to another guy, no less) that you’re afraid of not being strong enough. Especially so because he’s clearly going to try anyway, rather than just give up because he’s scared.

Uhhhh….Danny’s big character flaw is his chronic inability to honestly assess a situation until it blows up in his face. I’m seeing this level of introspection on his part as a good thing, to be honest.

Kind of what I just said. Danny is continuing take his Danni-ness down a level, and only after (possibly) his 2nd girlfriend, no less! This officially makes the nefarious possibility of remaining at the same levels of Danni-ness for the rest of his days null and void! Gollum falling into Mt. Doom and the Eagles rescuing Frodo and Samwise hasn’t quite happened, but it’s still something!

“Welp, I jumped out into space to get my love interest, which accomplishes nothing as now we’re both going to die. Oh, wait, there’s a spaceship right over there. Within a hundred feet. In the endless gulf of space. Wonder how we missed that.”

I like the one what isn’t the newest. The newest, of course, is a plague on mankind and literally worse than hitler. I eagerly look forward to the one what’s on the horizon which will save us, unlike when the newest promised this very same thing and much l ike the one what wasn’t the newest promised.

Thread count. Danny’s decision to enter his dorm room meant we would transition to his dorm room with him, thus we would see Joe in his underwear, and thus we would talk about it. Thus, all Danny’s fault.

I’m fairly certain by this line of reasoning everything will always be Danny’s fault forever.

Nobody really needs to do anything about Joe. Joe will take care of himself.

Be too much of a jerk and your friends stop talking to you. And since he seeks only shallow physical companionship he won’t have a significant other to comfort him.

I can’t naturally assume he’ll undergo the same process as Walkyverse Joe, especially since he’s already more mature than Walkyverse Joe was for years, but he’ll almost certainly learn that his behaviour has consequences and he’ll have to decide if he’s okay with them.

If Amber wanted Dina to make an exception for Danny, she could simply have spoken up to say so. Those rooms aren’t big enough that she could possibly have not overheard their conversation.

(Assuming she was in and awake. If not, Dina telling Amber later that Danny came by to see her is probably the best she could do anyway.)

And I don’t think that Amber choosing to not talk to Danny at this juncture is actually a mistake. She’s got some things she needs to sort out before she complicates them with Danny.

She’s got the problem, though, that everyone she knows well enough to talk to about her problems, to help her sort them out, save Dina and Mike, is tied up in the problems she needs to sort out. And Mike is… Mike, which leaves her with Dina, who’ll help as best she can, but is woefully unqualified for the job.

Because in my opinion, a good friend won’t sugar coat life. So if you know your bud isn’t strong enough for that kind of life it’s more of a disservice to just let them go on. Now, a good friend will say “Yeah, you’re not that strong.” but a GREAT friend will say “You’re not strong enough yet.”

Or, you know, offer some (Apparently) God damned support. Danny’s biggest problem is that he lacks confidence, he WOULD be stronger if he were given encouragement. It sounds like Joe is saying he just doesn’t give encouragement, ever.

No, his biggest problem has always been that he has shown no ability to reflect which caused him to continuously keep screwing up situations with similar strings of actions because he hasn’t realised that he takes actions which screw things up by worrying that the original one he wanted to do would make him look bad.

But, the very fact he is able to admit that what he had was a fantasy, and that it is now becoming reality which he could be unable to handle, does show that he reflected to a degree so he gets 5 points for that and for admitting that he lives in a lot of fantasies he gets another 5.

I do admit some support in this situation would be good, but a supportive lie could also result in Danny getting in over his head and that wouldn’t be good for him either. I think Joe’s just going straight to the point of ‘you might not be able to’, instead of risking hyping him up and making him believe he definitely will be able to.

Oh, and Dina still has infinity points so Danny still has to earn many more points before some people considering saying they ‘like’ him.

Also, and no guarantees Joe thought this far ahead, but a lie like “You can do this” right now, without knowing the details, could also let Danny start a new fantasy; one where he’s the hero coming to rescue her.

Yes. All of this. Joe is hearing some of the subtext, even if he doesn’t know the exact circumstances, and he’s telling Danny, “You are not what you want to be.” He’s not mature enough or experienced enough to help Amber, and someone needs to tell him that before he starts to get overly-confident.

You’re seriously arguing that Danny’s confidence is more important than Amber’s well being in this circumstance? Joe doesn’t know all the details, no, but he does know Danny, and he is catching on that there is something serious going on. He knows Danny is not mature enough to deal with it, whatever it is, and he’s shutting him down quick. Because Danny really /isn’t/. He can’t help Amber. She needs to be sent towards people that can, like an actual therapist, or at the very least, a school counselor who can help her through this without ulterior motives. (Ones that Danny would unintentionally have) He is not capable of being what she needs.
Joe might be being harsh, and even mean, but whereas that might make Danny sulk for a week, if he told Danny the opposite, that could just send Amber further down in her spiral.
Amber is not a plot device for Danny’s development. Don’t try to make her one.

he’s been pretty solid lately. He actually even had probably one of the Top 10 best punchlines in this comic’s history a little while back. I’d say what it was, but I don’t want to spoil it, Willis knocked that one out of the park.

You know, I dislike Joe for an almost similar reason to why I like Danny; while Danny is sort of the person I am, Joe is most certainly the sort of person that I’ve wanted to be. So when those two interact with each other, it’s like seeing how a representation of my personality (Danny) having a conversation with a representation of my inner self (Joe), and… while the carefree sex lifestyle is still a bit appealing to me, in the end, I’d rather be more like Danny.

I hope we’ll be able to further explore this cynicism and bitterness that Joe has about love; we know for certain it has to do with his divorced parents, and that while he acts almost the same way his father does, he isn’t proud of his father or anything. Maybe, in order to avoid making the same mistake of cheating and hurting others that his father made, he decided to forego the whole “love” process altogether; something like that is kinda sad within itself, though not sad enough that it’d let me excuse him for being an asshole.

I actually cant recall any at the moment, but I’m sure someone with better knowledge of the archives could find one. They were friends since childhood, and just last storyline we learned about that “picture of them riding a dragon” that Dorothy mentioned, but yeah, in general it seems like Danny and Joe have been growing apart lately.

Somehow, Joe being a green ranger fits, possibly because green and black have always been interchangeable in the Power Ranger/Super Sentai series. But if Joe is a green ranger, what would that make Danny? The blue ranger?

While I don’t agree with Joe’s take on it, I can agree he at least knows he doesn’t have much emotional depth and sticks with that, and that he reminded Danny of that fact when he was looking for someone to help him shoulder the burden by being himself.

Or, Joe’s an asshole, knows it and embraces it. I can at least respect honest assholes.

Sometimes an asshole is the only one willing to tell you the ugly things you need to hear. It’s why we like Mike. He is an asshole, he KNOWS he is an asshole, and yet his assholeness prompts character growth in everyone else around him, especially in the Walky/Shortpackedverse.

I get the impression that some characters (Joyce, Amber, Walkie, Dorothy) are intended to be main characters while others are intended to be supporting characters. So, I’m wondering, will Dina ever get a storyline of her own?

Not that I count myself amongst the crowd (not that I don’t), but I wonder if your next sexy, sexiness should include Joe. I bet there are plenty of fanboys and girls that want to see what’s under those green briefs.